LEGENDA 


LODGE    OF    PERFECTION 


SOUTHERN   JURISDICTION,  U.  S.  A. 


CHARLESTON. 

1888. 


LEGEND  A,  I. 

Jicnipa   of  firam. 


2067090 


LEGEND  A. 


I. 

THE    ^ENIGMA    OF    HIRAM. 

THE  Divine  Symbols  and  hieroglyphs  that  constitute  what 
has  in  all  time  been  called  the  KOSMOS,  the  WORLD,  the  UNI- 
VERSE, or  the  CREATION,  which  is  represented  by  the  Lodge, 
have  in  all  ages  been  misinterpreted.  They  are  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Deity,  the  formulated  expression  and  utterance  of 
His  THOUGHT,  the  unfolding  and  succession  of  the  manifold  in 
being  from  the  Divine  unity  of  Idea.  It  is  of  necessity  that 
the  Symbol  should  always  be  capable  of  being  misunderstood, 
and,  therefore,  Omnipotence  intended  that  they  should  be  so ; 
and  these  misinterpretations  are  the  philosophies  and  the  re- 
ligions that  have  succeeded  each  other  like  shadows  upon  the 
water. 

The  Universe  is  an  enigma,  of  which  the  Sphynx  is  the 
symbol.  The  whole  Egyptian  land  was  a  great  Book,  and 
the  teachings  of  this  Book  were  repeated,  translated  in 
pictures,  sculptures,  architecture,  in  all  the  cities  and  in  all 
the  temples.  The  Desert  itself  had  its  eternal  teachings, 
and  its  Word  of  Stone  sat  squarely  upon  the  base  of  the 
Pyramids,  before  which  the  colossal  Sphynx  has  meditated 
during  so  many  ages,  slowly  burying  itself  in  the  sand.  Its 
head,  mutilated  by  Time,  is  still  visible  above  its  tomb,  as  if 
to  disappear  it  only  waited  for  a  human  voice  to  come  and 
explain  to  the  New  World  the  problem  of  the  Pyramids. 

Superstitions,  it  has  been  said,  are  religious  forms  that  sur- 
vive lost  ideas.  All  once  had,  as  their  reason  of  being,  a  truth 
no  longer  known,  or  a  truth  transfigured.  Their  very  name, 


6  LEGENDA,    I. 

from  the  Latin  superstes,  signifies  that  which  sunives. 
They  are  the  material  relics  of  Ancient  Knowledge  or 
Opinions.  Once  the  meaning  of  the  Sphynx,  of  the  Assyrian 
human-headed  bulls  and  lions,  of  the  cherubim,  of  the  oxen 
under  the  brazen  laver,  of  the  mystic-winged  and  many-eyed 
creatures  of  Ezekiel,  was  known,  at  least  to  the  Sages.  Who 
now  possesses  the  key  to  that  meaning  ? 

Nor  is  it  only  the  Symbols  of  that  first  revelation  which  we 
term  Creation,  that  are  misinterpreted.  The  Oracles,  also, 
have  always  spoken  in  enigmas,  and  whoso  has  not  divined 
their  meaning  has,  in  attempting  it,  died.  The  sacred  Books 
of  the  Hebrews  are  also  Oracles — a  succession  of  symbols  and 
allegories — which  those  who  read  them  literally  the  least 
understand.  Who  can  interpret  the  Prophecies  and  the 
Apocalypse  ? 

MASONKY  also  has  its  ancient  Symbols,  inherited  from  the 
Mysteries  uud  the  Kabaluh,  and  intended  to  veil  and  conceal 
the  truth  from  all  except  the  Adepts.  Like  the  religions, 
also,  Masonry  gives  false  interpretations  of  its  Symbols,  to 
mislead  those  who  would  not  value  the  highest  philosophical 
truth,  and  the  Profane  to  whom  these  interpretations  may  be 
divulged. 

The  Statue  of  Truth  is  always  veiled.  Nature  reluctantly 
yields  up  to  us  her  secrets,  so  that  as  yet  we  know  them  only 
in  part,  and  imperfectly.  Science  is  a  progressive  revelation, 
and  the  revelation  by  the  written  word  is  continuous ;  its  true 
meaning,  which  is  the  revealing,  being  slowly  evolved  during 
the  march  of  the  centuries. 

Unfortunately,  the  Sages  die,  leaving  no  successors,  and 
the  true  interpretation  of  the  Symbols  that  they  used  dies 
with  them ;  but  the  false  interpretations  to  which  they  re- 
sorted survive.  The  Symbol  itself  is  taken  for  the  thing  or 
the  truth  symbolized.  The  symbolic  ceremony  is  deemed 
to  possess  the  energy  of  salvation  ;  and  to  neglect  a  sacrifice 


LEGENDA,   I.  7 

or  a  Rite,  or  for  an)*  except  the  Priest  to  dare  to  use  it,  is  re- 
garded and  punished  as  sacrilege:  while  dull  mediocrity 
invents  tame  and  common  interpretations,  that  make  the 
ceremony  which  once  was  solemn  to  be  trivial,  and  the  Symbol 
itself  to  be  worthless. 

But  when  an  interpretation  is  in  part  true,  and  in  part 
intentionally  false  or  obscure,  symbolism  performs  its  own 
accustomed  office,  requiring  the  Initiate  to  separate  the  True 
from  the  Untrue  by  his  own  study  and  reflection,  or  to  re- 
main among  the  mass  of  those  to  whom  the  highest  Truth  is 
of  the  least  value. 

Such  an  interpretation  is  that  which  follows.  It  is  given 
by  an  Adept,  and,  therefore,  propounds  the  truth  enigmatic- 
ally, that  which  it  plainly  expresses  being  of  less  value  than 
that  which  it  conceals  or  only  hints  at. 

"Anarchy  alone  natters  the  prejudices  of  the  multitude. 
Absolute  truths  are  not  needed  for  the  masses ;  for  otherwise 
progress  would  be  arrested,  and  life  would  cease  in  humanity 
The  ebb  and  flow  of  contrary  ideas,  the  shock  of  opinions, 
the  passions  that  rule  the  intellect,  determined  always  by  the 
dreams  of  the  moment,  are  necessary  to  the  intellectual 
growth  of  the  peoples." 

"  Few  men,  in  any  age,"  to  use  the  energetic  language  of 
the  Oracle,  "have  heard  the  Light  speak."  The  Light,  indeed, 
in  the  visible  world,  alternates  with  the  Shadow ;  they  mingle 
with  each  other,  also,  and  the  line  between  them  is  not  to  be 
defined.  So  also  it  is  with  Truth  and  Error ;  for  Error  is  the 
shadow  of  the  Light.  Errors,  also,  in  science  and  philosophy, 
often  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  truth ;  and  the  intellect  is 
more  profitably  exercised  in  detecting  them,  and  so  for  itself 
extracting  the  gold  from  the  ore,  than  in  digesting  the  truths 
which  those  who  so  discovered  them  teach. 

Let  the  Initiate,  then,  winnow  the  Error  from  the  Truth  in 
the  following  interpretation  of  a  Masonic  legend. 


8  LEGENDA,   I. 

"The  Grand  Kabalistic  Association,  known  in  Ei.rope 
under  the  name  of  MASONRY,  appeared  all  at  once  in  the 
world  at  the  period  when  the  Protest  against  the  Church 
came  to  break  the  Christian  unity.  The  historians  of  the 
Order  do  not  know  how  to  explain  the  origin  of  it.  Some 
ascribe  it  to  a  free  association  of  Masons,  formed  at  the  time 
of  the  building  of  the  cathedral  of  Strasburg:  others  give 
it  Cromwell  for  founder,  without  troubling  themselves  to 
inquire  whether  the  rites  of  the  English  Masonry  of  the  time 
of  Cromwell  were  not  organized  against  that  chief  of  the 
Puritan  anarchy ;  and  others  are  ignorant  enough  to  attribute 
to  the  Jesuits,  if  not  the  foundation,  at  least  the  continuation 
and  direction  of  this  society,  long  secret  and  always  mys- 
terious. Rejecting  this  last  opinion,  which  refutes  itself,  we 
may  reconcile  the  others,  by  saying  that  the  Brethren-masons 
(freres-mapons)  borrowed  from  the  builders  of  the  Cathedral 
of  Strasburg  their  name  and  the  emblems  of  their  art ;  and 
that  they  were  publicly  organized  for  the  first  time  in  Eng- 
land, under  favor  of  its  radical  institutions,  and  in  despite  of 
the  despotism  of  Cromwell. 

"  We  may  add,  that  they  have  had  the  Templars  for  models, 
the  Roses-croix  for  fathers,  and  the  Johannites  for  ancestors. 
Their  dogma  is  that  of  Zoroaster  and  Hermes ;  their  rule  is 
progressive  initiation ;  their  principle,  equality,  regulated  by 
the  hierarchy  and  universal  fraternity :  they  are  the  continuers 
of  the  school  of  Alexandria,  heirs  of  all  the  ancient  initiations ; 
they  are  the  depositaries  of  the  secrets  of  the  Apocalypse 
and  the  Sohar ;  the  object  of  their  worship  is  Truth,  repre- 
sented by  the  Light ;  they  tolerate  all  creeds,  and  profess  but 
one  and  the  same  philosophy ;  they  search  for  Truth  alone, 
teach  only  Eeality,  and  desire  to  lead  all  intelligences  pro- 
gressively to  Reason. 

"  The  allegorical  object  of  Masonry  is  the  rebuilding  of  the 
Temple  of  Solomon :  its  real  object  is  the  reconstitution  of 


LEGENDA,   L  9 

social  unity,  by  the  alliance  of  Keason  and  Faith;  and  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Hierachy,  in  accordance  with  knowledge 
and  virtue;  with  initiation  and  tests  by  means  of  degrees. 

"Nothing  is  finer,  we  see,  nothing  grander  than  these 
ideas;  but  unfortunately  the  doctrines  of  unity  and  of  sub- 
mission to  the  hierarchy  have  not  been  preserved  in  the  uni- 
versal Masonry.  There  soon  sprung  up  a  dissident  Ma- 
sonry, opposed  to  the  orthodox,  and  the  greatest  calamities 
of  the  French  Revolution  were  the  consequences  of  this 
schism. 

"The  Freemasons  have  their  sacred  legend  ;  that  of  HIRAM 
completed  by  that  of  CYRUS  and  ZOROBABEL. 

"This  is  the  legend  of  Hiram  : 

"When  Solomon  caused  the  Temple  to  be  builded,  he  in- 
trusted his  plans  to  an  architect  named  HIRAM  or  HARAM. 

"This  Architect,  to  establish  order  in  the  work,  divided 
the  laborers  according  to  their  skill  and  experience  ;  and  as 
their  number  was  very  great,  in  order  to  be  able  io  recognize 
them,  whether  to  employ  them  according  to  their  capacity,  or 
to  remunerate  them  according  to  their  work,  he  gave  to  each 
class,  to  the  Apprentices,  Fellows,  and  Masters,  particular  pass- 
words and  signs. 

"  Three  Fellow-crafts  who  desired  to  usurp  the  rank  of  Mas- 
ter, without  being  entitled  to  it  by  their  deserts,  lay  in  wait  at 
the  three  principal  gates  of  t'.ie  Temple,  and  when  Hiram 
was  about  to  go  forth,  one  of  them  demanded  of  him  the 
Masters'  word,  menacing  him  with  his  Rule. 

"  Hiram  replied  to  him  :  '  2  did  not  so  receive  the  word  that 
you  demand  of  me." 

"  The  enraged  Fellow-craft  struck  Hiram  with  his  Rule  of 
iron,  and  inflicted  on  him  the  first  wound. 

"  Hiram  fled  to  another  gate,  and  there  found  the  second 
Fellow-craft  :  the  same  demand  was  made  and  the  same  reply 
given,  and  this  time  Hiram  was  struck  with  a  square,  or,  as 
others  say,  with  a  lever. 


10  LEGENDA,    I. 

"At  the  third  gate  was  the  third  assassin,  who  finished  the 
Master  with  a  blow  of  a  mallet. 

"  The  three  Fellow-crafts  afterward  hid  the  body  under  a 
pile  of  rubbish,  and  planted  on  this  improvised  grave  a  branch 
of  Acacia,  and  then  fled,  like  Cain  after  the  murder  of  Abel. 

"  Meanwhile  Solomon,  his  Architect  not  returning,  sent 
nine  Masters  to  seek  him.  The  branch  of  acacia  led  them  to 
find  the  body;  they  drew  it  from  the  rubbish,  and  as  it  had 
remained  there  for  some  days,  they  cried,  upon  raising  it, 
Macli-benacli !  which  means,  ( the  flesh  parts  from  the  bones.' 

"The  last  duties  were  performed  to  Hiram,  and  twenty- 
seven  Masters  were  then  sent  by  Solomon  to  search  for  the 
murderers. 

"The  first  was  surprised  in  a  cave  ;  a  lamp  burned  near 
him,  a  rivulet  ran  at  his  feet,  and  a  poniard  was  near  him  for 
his  defence.  The  Master  who  entered  the  cavern  recognized 
the  assassin,  seized  the  poniard,  and  stabbed  him,  saying 
*  NEKUM  ! '  a  word  that  means  '  Vengeance?  His  head  was  carried 
to  Solomon,  who  was  angered  on  seeing  it,  and  said  to  him 
who  had  killed  the  assassin  :  '  Wretch!  did  you  not  know  that 
I  had  reserved  to  myself  the  right  to  punish  9  Then  all  the 
Masters  prostrated  themselves,  and  begged  for  pardon  for  him. 
whom  his  zeal  had  carried  too  far. 

"  The  second  murderer  was  betrayed  by  a  man  who  had 
given  him  refuge.  He  was  hidden  in  a  grotto  among  the 
rocks,  near  a  burning  bush,  over  which  glowed  a  rainbow, 
and  a  dog  watched  near  him.  The  Masters  eluded  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  dog,  seized  the  criminal,  bound  him,  and  led  him 
to  Jerusalem,  where  he  was  put  to  death. 

"The  third  assassin  was  killed  by  a  lion,  which  it  was 
necessary  to  conquer  in  order  to  gain  possession  of  the  body. 
But  other  versions  say  that  the  assassin  defended  himself 
against  the  Masters  with  an  axe,  until  they  succeeded  in  dis- 
arming him,  when  they  took  him  to  Solomon,  who  ordered 
him  executed,  to  expiate  his  crime. 


LEGENDA,   L  11 

"  Such  is  the  first  legend.     See  now  the  explanation  of  it. 

"  SOLOMON  is  the  personification  of  Knowledge  and  the 
Supreme  Wisdom. 

"The  Temple  is  the  realization  and  figure  of  the  Holy  Em- 
pire, the  reign  of  Truth  and  Reason  on  the  earth. 

"Hiram  is  Man  attaining  Empire  by  means  of  Knowledge 
and  Sagacity. 

"  He  governs  by  Justice  and  Order,  rewarding  every  one 
according  to  his  works. 

"  Every  degree  of  the  Order  has  a  Word  which  expresses  its 
meaning. 

"There  is  for  Hiram  only  one  Word,  but  this  is  pronounced 
in  three  different  manners. 

"In  one  manner  for  the  Apprentices,  pronounced  by  whom 
it  signifies  Nature,  and  is  explained  by  Toil. 

" In  another  manner  for  the  Fellow-crafts;  and  with  them 
it  means  Thought,  explaining  itself  by  Study. 

"In  another  manner  for  the  Masters;  and  in  their  mouth 
it  signifies  Truth,  a  word  that  is  explained  bv  Wisdom. 

"  This  Word  is  that  used  to  designate  God,  whose  true  name 
is  ineffable  and  incommunicable. 

"  So  there  are  three  degrees  in  the  Hierarchy,  as  there  are 
three  gates  to  the  Temple. 

"  There  are  three  principal  rays  in  the  Light ; 

"There  are  three  Forces  in  nature. 

"These  Forces  are  figured  by  the  RULE,  which  unites  ;  the 
LEVER,  that  raises;  and  the  MALLET,  that  consolidates. 

"The  rebellion  of  the  brutal  instincts  against  the  Hie- 
rarchical aristocracy  of  wisdom,  arms  itself  in  succes- 
sion with  these  three  forces,  which  it  turns  aside  from  the 
harmony. 

"  There  are  three  typical  rebels  : 

"  The  rebel  against  Nature  ; 

"  The  rebel  against  Knowledge  ; 

"The  rebel  against  Truth. 


12  LEGENDA,   L 

"  These  were  figured  in  the  Hell  of  the  ancients,  by  the 
three  heads  of  Cerberus. 

"  They  are  figured  in  the  Bible  by  Korah,  Dathan,  and 
Abiron. 

"  In  the  Masonic  legend  they  are  designated  by  names  that 
vary  according  to  the  Rites. 

"  The  first  is  called  YUBELA  and  ROMVEL.  He  strikes  the 
Grand  Master  with  the  Rule. 

"  It  is  the  history  of  the  first  man  put  to  death,  in  the  name 
of  the  Law,  by  human  passions. 

"The  second  is  called  YUBELO  or  HOBHEN.  He  strikes 
Hiram  with  the  Lever  or  the  Square. 

"  So  the  popular  Lever  or  the  Square  of  a  senseless  Equal- 
ity becomes  the  instrument  of  Tyranny  in  the  hands  of  the 
multitude,  and  wounds  yet  more  severely  than  the  Rule  the 
Royalty  of  Wisdom  and  Virtue. 

"The  third  is  called  YUBELUM,  Abairam,  AJchirop,  Gibs, 
or  Gravelot.  He  slays  Hiram  with  the  Mallet. 

"As  the  brutal  instincts  do,  when  they  attempt  to  create 
Order  in  the  name  of  Violence,  and  Fear  by  crushing  Intel- 
ligence." 

"  The  branch  of  ACACIA  ou  the  grave  of  Hiram  is  like  the 
Cross  upon  our  altars. 

"  It  is  the  Sign  of  knowledge  surviving  knowledge,  the 
green  branch  that  announces  another  spring.*' 

[The  acacia,  or,  as  it  is  to  be  read,  akdkia,  in  the  Greek 
anaKia,  from  am},  a  point,  is  that  genus  of  trees  to  which 
belong  that  which  yields  the  gum  arabic,  the  mezquite,  and 
the  locust.  It  is  the  satah  or  satam  wood  of  the  Hebrew 
writings,  HC2^  •  •  •  DE2&*  •  •  •  satah,  satam,  used  in  the 
construction  of  the  Tabernacle  and  the  Temple,  and  there- 
fore a  Symbol  of  Holiness  and  Divine  Truth.  In  the  Greek, 
ocHctHoS  and  anemia  mean  freedom  from  evil,  ^""jp,  Holy, 
Holiness,  the  TEMPLE,  or  HOLY  HOUSE.  It  is,  therefore,  not 
the  Symbol  of  Immortality  alone,  but  of  that  life  of  innocence 


LEGENDA,   I.  13 

and  purity  for  which  the  Faithful  hope  when  they  shall  have 
been  raised  up  to  a  new  and  spiritual  existence.] 

''When  men  have  so  troubled  the  order  of  nature,  as  the 
slayers  of  Hiram  did,  Providence  intervenes  to  re-establish  it ; 
as  Solomon,  symbol  of  the  Infinite  and  Creative  Wisdom,  did 
to  avenge  the  death  of  Hiram. 

"  He  who  assassinated  with  the  Kule  dies  by  the  poniard. 

"He  who  struck  with  the  Lever  or  the  Square  will  die 
under  the  axe  of  the  law.  This  is  the  eternal  sentence  of  the 
Regicides. 

"He  who  completed  the  murder  with  the  Mallet,  falls  a 
victim  to  the  Force  which  he  abused,  and  is  strangled  by  the 
Lion. 

"  The  Assassin  by  the  Rule  is  denounced  by  the  very  Lump 
that  gave  him  light,  and  the  Spring  at  which  he  drinks. 

"  That  is  to  say,  he  is  subjected  to  the  lex  talionis. 

"The  Assassin  by  the  Square  will  be  surprised  when  his 
vigilance  is  at  fault,  like  a  dog  asleep,  and  he  will  be  be- 
trayed  by  his  accomplices ;  for  Anarchy  is  the  Mother  of 
Treason. 

"  The  Lion  that  devours  the  Assassin  by  the  Mallet,  is  one 
of  the  forms  of  the  Sphinx  of  (Edipus. 

"And  whosoever  shall  have  conquered  the  Lion,  will  de- 
serve to  succeed  to  the  dignity  of  Hiram. 

"  The  body  of  Hiram,  putrefied,  shows  that  forms  change, 
but  the  spirit  remains. 

"  The  stream  which  flowed  near  the  first  murderer,  refers 
to  the  deluge  which  punished  unnatural  crimes. 

"The  Burning  Bush  and  Rainbow,  which  cause  the  second 
Assassin  to  be  discovered,  represent  Light  and  Life  de- 
nouncing violences  against  Thought. 

"In  fine,  the  Lion  vanquished  represents  the  triumph  of 
Spirit  over  Matter,  and  the  definitive  submission  of  Force  to 
Reason. 

"  Since  the  beginning  of  the  toil  of  the  Spirit  to  build  the 


14  LEGENDA,   I. 

Temple  of  Unity,  Hiram  has  been  killed  many  times,  and 
always  raised  again  to  life. 

"He  is  ADONIS  killed  by  the  wild  boar,  OSIRIS  assassinated 
by  Tuphon. 

"He  is  PYTHAGORAS  proscribed,  ORPHEUS  torn  by  the  Bac- 
chantes, HERMES,  HORUS,  MITHRAS,  GAMA,  ATYS,  BALDER, 
MOSES  abandoned  in  the  caves  of  Mount  Nebo,  JESUS  put  to 
death  by  Judas,  Caiaphas  and  Pilate. 

"  The  true  Masons,  then,  are  those  who  persist  in  striving 
to  build  the  Temple  according  to  the  plan  of  Hiram. 

"Such  is  the  grand  and  principal  legend  of  Masonry.  The 
rest  are  not  less  fine  nor  less  profound,  but  we  do  not  think  it 
right  that  we  should  divulge  their  mysteries  ;  though  we  have 
received  initiation  of  God  and  our  labors  alone,  we  regard  the 
secrets  of  High  Masonry  as  our  own.  Having  by  our  efforts 
attained  a  scientific  degree  which  imposes  silence  on  us,  we 
hold  ourselves  more  firmly  bound  by  our  convictions  than  by 
our  oath.  Science  is  a  Nobility  which  obliges  ;  and  we  will 
not  be  unworthy  of  the  princely  crown  of  the  Eose  Crosses. 
We,  too,  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  Hiram. 

"The  Eites  of  Masonry  are  devoted  to  transmitting  the 
remembrance  of  the  legends  of  initiation,  and  preserving  it 
among  the  Brethren. 

"We  shall,  perhaps,  be  asked  how,  if  Masonry  is  so  sublime 
and  so  holy,  it  could  have  been  proscribed  and  so  often  con- 
demned by  the  Church  ? 

"We  have  replied  to  this  question  in  speaking  of  the 
schisms  and  profanations  of  Masonry. 

"  Masonry  is  the  Gnosis ;  and  the  false  Gnostics  have 
caused  the  true  to  be  condemned. 

"What  compels  them  to  secrecy,  is  not  fear  of  the  Light : 
light  is  what  they  wish,  seek  for,  and  adore. 

"  They  fear  the  profaners — that  is  to  say,  the  false  interpre- 
ters, the  calumniators,  the  skeptics  with  their  stupid  laugh, 
the  enemies  of  every  creed  and  all  morality. 


LEGENDA,   I.  15 

"In  our  time,  moreover,  a  great  number  of  men  who  believe 
themselves  Free  Masons,  are  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  their 
Kites,  and  have  lost  the  key  of  their  Mysteries. 

"They  do  not  even  any  longer  comprehend  their  symbolic 
pictures,  and  as  little  understand  the  hieroglyph ical  signs  with 
which  the  hangings  of  their  Lodges  are  decorated. 

"  These  pictures  and  signs  are  the  pages  of  the  book  of  the 
absolute  and  universal  knowledge. 

"They  can  be  read  by  the  aid  of  the  Kabalistic  clues,  and 
hide  nothing  from  the  Initiate  who  possesses  the  keys  of  inter- 
pretation of  Solomon. 

"Masonry  has  not  only  been  profaned,  but  it  has  even 
served  as  a  veil  and  pretext  for  the  plottings  of  anarchy,  by 
the  secret  influence  of  the  avengers  of  Jacques  de  Molai,  and 
the  continucrs  of  the  schismatic  work  of  the  Temple. 

"Instead  of  avenging  the  death  of  Hiram,  his  Assassins 
have  been  avenged. 

"The  Anarchists  have  retaken  the  Rule,  the  Square,  and 
the  Mallet,  and  written  on  them,  '  LIBERTY,  EQUALITY,  FRA- 
TERNITY.' 

"  That  is  to  say,  Liberty  for  the  covetous  to  plunder, 
Equality  for  the  basest,  and  Fraternity  to  destroy. 

"These  are  the  men  whom  the  Church  has  always  con- 
demned, and  always  will  condemn." 

These  interpretations  are  ingenious,  but  not  correct. 

In  the  Hebrew,  Q*)n>  Khrm,  meant  'devoted,  consecrated,' 
devoted  to  the  sacrifice  as  a  victim.  *~}]ft  means  'white,  an 
aperture,  a  window.'  The  name  of  the  Artificer  is,  in  Kings, 
Khirra;  and  in  Chronicles,  Khurm.  Whether  the  second  syl- 
lable is  am,  iim  or  dm,  is  uncertain. 

Also,  if],  khi,  means  'life,  living,  alive;'  fcOrP^rp^ 
Aloha-Khia,  'the  Living  God.'  And  QfcO  ram,  meant  'was, 
or  shall,  be  raised,  elevated.' 

The  English  Masonry  was  Christian  (which  means  Trinita- 
rian) from  the  beginning,  and  in  it  Hiram  was  the  representa- 


16  LEGENDA,   I. 

live  of  Christ.  In  the  Scottish  Masonry  he  represented 
Jacques  do  Molui,  and  Charles  I.  of  England.  But  in  it  he 
became  afterwards  the  representative  of  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty. Khur  or  kur,  in  Persian,  means  'the  Sun,  Light :'  and 
Hiram  or  Huram  (Kliurom,  um  or  dm),  personifies  moral, 
political  and  religious  Truth.  He  is  the  Apostle  of  Truth, 
the  Tribune  of  the  People,  the  Reformer,  the  Defender  of 
Free  Thought. 

Christ,  preaching  the  equality  of  men  before  God,  and 
making  of  those  who  followed  him  a  Brotherhood,  denouncing 
oppressors  and  hypocrites,  scourging  the  money-changers  out 
of  the  Temple,  selecting  his  disciples  among  the  poor  of  the 
Earth,  became  the  type,  in  Free  Masonry,  of  the  Man  of  the 
People,  endeavouring  to  enfranchise  and  elevate  them. 

To  know  whom  his  assassins  personify,  ask  by  what  agen- 
cies such  men  have  always  disappeared  from  the  earth. 

ROYALTY  fears  the  PATRIOT,  and,  as  fear  is  always  cruel, 
sends  him  1o  the  scaffold.  The  PRIESTHOOD  convicts  the  dar- 
ing INQUIRER  and  philosophical  THINKER,  of  Heresy  or  Con- 
tumacy, and  professing  to  abhor  the  shedding  of  blood,  deliv- 
ers him  to  the  secular  arm  to  be  murdered.  The  PEOPLE,  slave 
of  both  the  Crown  and  the  Tiara,  as  a  mob,  or  embodied  as 
soldiery,  executes  with  brutal  violence  the  savage  will  of  both. 

At  the  Station  of  the  Junior  Warden,  Hiram  is  stricken  with 
the  RULE,  or  twenty-four  inch  GAUGE,  on  the  throat.  At  the 
Station  of  the  Senior  Warden,  with  the  angle  of  the  SQUARE, 
over  the  heart :  and  at  the  Station  of  the  Master,  with  the  SET- 
TING-MAUL, on  the.  forehead. 

In  the  THROAT  are  the  organs  of  speech  :  the  HEART  was 
for  ages  spoken  of  as  the  seat  of  the  affections,  and  is  so  yet; 
and  the  FOREHEAD  is  the  Seat  of  the  Intellect. 

What  is  meant  by  the  three  implements?  Evidently  they 
are  symbolical.  Men  intending  to  extort  a  Secret,  or  take  life 
if  refused,  would  not  arm  themselves  with  rules  and  small 
squares.  Webb  and  Cross,  and  the  babblers  of  their  school, 


LEGENDA,   I.  17 

who  have  never  rightly  interpreted  a  single  Symbol,  have  not 
attempted  to  interpret  these.  Their  business  has  been  to  more 
completely  obscure  the  meaning  of  all  the  Symbols,  by  leading 
thinkers  and  thoughtless  alike  away  from  the  truth,  by  trivial 
and  worthless  interpretations,  whereby  the  Symbols  have  lost 
all  value. 

The  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  first  of  the  three  Symbols, 
the  RULE,  is,  that  in  the  Greek,  a  RULE,  whether  an  implement, 
or  a  rule  of  conduct,  or  law,  is  HUVGOV,  canon;  and  the  Law 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  derived  from  various  sources,  has 
always  been  called  "The  Canon  Law." 

The  RULE,  therefore,  canon,  is  an  apt  Symbol  of  the  Church ; 
and,  in  connection  with  the  putting  to  death  of  Jesus  of  Xaza- 
reth,  of  the  Jewish  Church,  represented  by  Annas  and  Caia- 
phas,  the  High  Priests,  Avho  most  urgently  demanded  and 
urged  the  People  to  demand  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  before 
Pilate  and  Herod,  even  inciting  them,  when  Pilate  desired 
to  release  him,  to  demand  the  release  instead,  of  the  thit-f, 
Barabbas. 

The  Jewish  Priesthood  at  Jerusalem  desired  to  silence  Christ, 
being  exasperated  by  his  denunciations  of  their  hypocrisy 
and  vices  :  and  therefore  the  Junior  Warden,  with  the  RULE, 
Symbol  of  the  Pontifical  and  Sacerdotal  Power,  smote  Hiram 
on  the  throat,  where  the  organs  of  speech  are. 

Augustus  Caesar  became  the  absolute  Tyrant  of  Rome,  not  by 
usurping  power,  but  by  uniting  in  his  own  person  all  the 
great  offices  of  the  State,  and  so  investing  himself  with  all  the 
powers  of  Government.  Possessed  of  all  Civil  and  Judicial 
Power,  he  also  became  possessor  of  all  Religious  Power,  by  be- 
coming Poutifex  Maxirnus ;  and  all  this  accumulation  of  pow- 
ers his  Successors  inherited. 

The  rigid,  unbending  Square  of  Steel,  its  two  arms  uniting 
to  form  the  unyielding  unity  of  the  right  angle,  is  an  apt  Sym- 
bol of  the  Imperial  Power  of  Rome,  union  of  all  Civil  and  all 
Religious  Power,  a  hard,  harsh,  unrelenting,  merciless  Des- 
2 


18  LEGENDA,   I. 

pofism,  its  laws  the  edicts  of  an  arbitrary  will,  and,  whether 
just  or  unjust,  executed  without  ruth  or  pity. 

Wherefore,  and  because  every  Despotism,  jealous,  suspicious, 
and  cruel,  because  suspicion  and  jealousy  are  cowardly,  and 
always  cruel,  crushes  without  mercy  or  remorse  the  affections 
of  the  heart,  upon  mere  suspicion  sends  the  husband  or  father 
to  Siberia,  or  to  hard  labour  in  mines,  or  to  a  dungeon  for  life, 
consigns  to  exile,  imprisonment,  or  death,  even  the  nearest 
blood-relations  of  the  Tyrant,  lest  they  should  have  partizans, 
and  the  disaffected  should  gather  around  them,  and  imperil 
the  Tyrant's  tenure  of  the  throne,  the  Senior  Warden  smites 
Hiram  with  the  Angle  of  the  Square  over  the  heart,  the  Seat  of 
the  Affections. 

The  Maul  or  Mallet,  like  the  Club,  a  brutal  weapon  which 
crushes  and  defaces  the  image  of  God  in  Humanity,  is  a  fit 
Symbol  of  the  mob,  blind  and  unreasoning,  beating  down  and 
crushing  with  brute  force  whatever  resists  its  mad  rage,  or  has 
excited  its  insane  suspicions.  Utterly  without  reasoning,  and 
hating  cultivation  and  enlightenment,  it  looks  upon  the  men 
of  thought,  the  Statesmen  and  Scholars,  and  Thinkers,  as  its 
enemies,  and  like  Jack  Cade,  considers  knowledge  a  crime. 
Wherefore,  at  the  Station  of  the  Master,  Hiram  is  stricken  with 
the  Setting-Maul  upon  the  forehead,  Seat  of  the  Intellect,  and 
falls  stunned  and  crushed  at  the  feet  of  the  third  Assassin. 

Reason  and  Intellect  have,  in  all  ages,  been  found  powerless, 
as  they  still  are,  to  oppose  a  Military  Despotism  or  organized 
Anarchy,  in  which  alike  the  base  and  the  brutal  govern,  and  tho 
good  and  the  wise  serve.  The  Revolutionary  Tribunal,  the 
Star  Chamber,  the  Military  Commission,  Tribunals  that  sit 
sworn  to  condemn,  and  girded  with  bayonets,  are  the  embodi- 
ments of  this  brute  Force,  and  strike  with  its  Club  of  Steel  at 
the  brain  of  Constitutional  Freedom.  It  is  the  people  that 
clamors  for  the  blood  of  the  Patriot;  and  the  Soldiery  is  but 
the  mob,  organized  and  directed  by  a  single  will — an  instru- 
ment, wielded  like  the  Mace,  blind  and  unreasoning  as  fate.  In 


LEGENDA,    I.  19 

the  hand  of  Cyril  it  smites  Hypatia,  the  Virgin  enamored  of 
the  old  philosophy  :  in  that  of  Marat  it  tears  asunder  the  white 
limbs  of  the  Princess  Lamballe,  and  offers  the  last  indignities 
to  her  palpitating  flesh.  It  howls  after  Rienzi  as  he  treads  the 
road  that  leads  to  the  scaffold:  it  digs  up  the  bones  of  Crom- 
well at  the  will  of  an  English  Monarch,  who  becomes  a  pen- 
sioner of  the  Throne  of  France.  It  followed  Christ  with  exe- 
crations as  he  staggered  under  the  crushing  Aveight  of  the 
Cross:  it  lauded  Jeffries  when  he  murdered  under  the  forms  of 
English  justice:  it  slaughtered  the  Grand  Pensionary  De  Witt: 
it  yelled  for  the  blood  of  Vergniaud,  and  would,  if  he  had  been 
unsuccessful,  have  hounded  Washington  to  the  scaffold  as  a 
Traitor.  It  betrays  and  abandons  its  chiefs,  and  does  not,  like 
Iscariot,  repent,  but  obtains  absolution  for  its  own  sins  by  as- 
senting to  the  sacrifice  of  those  whom  it  forced  into  rebellion 
against  the  Throne,  or  the  voluntary  union  of  States.  There 
is  always  a  scape-goat  devoted  to  Azaze),  a  sacrifice  to  expiate 
the  sins  of  the  multitude  ;  and  God  permits  the  people  to  be 
base,  in  order  to  demonstrate  the  legitimacy  of  the  despotisms 
of  the  Caesars,  the  Cromwells,  and  the  Xapoleons. 

The  Crown  itself  is  but  a  symbol,  and  Royalty  is  but  the 
most  common  type  of  tyranny.  The  Kings  of  the  mob  are  des- 
pots also,  and  free  States,  like  Athens  or  Sparta,  subjugating 
other  free  States,  and  animated  by  a  vindictive  revenge,  strike 
with  the  Rule  at  the  throat,  their  anger  and  hatred  taking  the 
form  of  law,  and  prohibiting  the  discussion  of  human  or  con- 
stitutional rights.  When,  among  Republics,  Force  decides 
erroneously,  as  it  always  does,  it  becomes  a  crime,  sometimes 
called  Treason,  to  be  the  advocate  and  defender  of  the  Truth, 
or  even  to  re-state  the  facts  of  History. 

The  Mitre  and  Tiara  also  are  but  symbols,  and  the  Pontifi- 
cate but  the  most  usual  mode  in  which  spiritual  despotism 
manifests  itself.  Everywhere,  and  in  every  age,  the  Priest 
covets  temporal  power ;  and  in  Republics,  the  pulpit  becomes 
the  Tribune,  and  the  dogmas  and  cruel  angers  of  the  Mountain 


20  LEGENDA,   I. 

of  Jacobinism  become  a  part  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  The 
Sanctuary  goes  back  to  the  days  of  Moses  and  Joshua  for  its 
precedents,  and  the  Creed  persecuted  yesterday  becomes  the 
persecutor  of  to-day.  In  all  ages,  the  Priesthood,  hater  equally 
of  what  it  styles  Heresy,  and  of  true  Liberty,  makes  Thought 
and  Opinions  crimes.  That  murderously  cruel  Agency,  the 
Inquisition,  was  sanctified  by  being  called  "  The  Holy  Office;  '* 
as  wars  of  religious  persecution  have  been  baptized  by  the 
Church  as  "  Holy  Wars." 

"  He  who  assassinated  by  the  Rule,  dies  by  the  poniard. 
.  .  .  He  who  struck  with  the  Lever  or  the  Square  will  die 
under  the  axe  of  the  Law.  This  is  the  eternal  Sentence  of  the 
Regicides." 

Caesar  falls,  pierced  by  the  dagger  of  Brutus.  The  Tyrant 
is  deemed  the  enemy  of  the  human  race,  and  the  Neros,  Caligu- 
las,  Domitians,  and  Robespierres,  like  the  Tarquins  and  the 
Appii,  are  wild  beasts  whom  it  seems  lawful  to  slay  by  any 
means  whatsoever.  The  victims  of  the  Autocrat  of  the  Tatars 
and  Cossacks  in  Poland,  and  the  countless  Exiles  sent  to  die  in 
Siberia,  are  at  last  avenged  by  the  Nihilist  bomb  that  slays  an 
Emperor  of  Russia.  But  the  truer  Regicides  than  those  who 
so  assassinate,  or  those  who  try  and  condemn  the  false  and 
faithless,  or  feeble  King,  the  Charles  or  the  Louis,  are  those 
who  assassinate  the  Kings  of  Thought,  the  Royalty  of  the  In- 
tellect. Justice  is  slow,  but  it  at  length  overtakes  the  persecut- 
ing Church,  arraigns  it  before  the  great  Tribunal  of  the  Na- 
tions, and  smites  it  with  the  axe  of  Justice,  wherever  it  may 
have  been  enthroned,  and  under  whatsoever  name  it  may  have 
usurped  the  prerogative  of  God.  The  blood  of  the  Huguenot, 
the  Covenanter,  and  the  Quaker,  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  and  the 
Eve  of  St.  Bartholomew  are  always  avenged  at  last  by  the  jus- 
tice of  Omnipotence. 

Tyranny  is  dethroned  by  the  Intellect  of  which  it  consti- 
tutes itself  the  patron,  and  by  the  burghers  and  the  commons 
to  whom  it  grants  privileges,  that  they  may  be  bribed  to  sus- 


LEGENDA,   L  21 

tain  it  with  moneys,  and  aid  it  in  crushing  the  Nobles  that  en- 
danger the  power  of  the  Crown :  and  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
— its  Luthers  and  Wesleys — always  spring  from  its  own  loins. 
Its  own  children  turn  upon  it  and  rend  it.  It  was  the  Monk 
ofEinsliehen  that  wounded  the  Romish  Church  unto  death; 
and  the  Church  of  England  has  been,  like  Protestantism  in 
Germany  and  Xew  England,  the  nursing-mother  of  her  dead- 
liest foes. 

But  what  if  there  should  be  other  and  profounder  meanings 
than  these,  dangerous  if  known  to  the  multitude,  and  only 
darkly  hinted  at  by  the  Adepts  ? 

What  if  KnuR-Chr,  Symbol  of  the  LIGHT  and  representative 
of  the  Sex,  and  himself  typified  at  his  summer  and  winter 
solstices  by  Saint  John  the  Baptist  and  Saint  John  the  Evan- 
gelist, were  also  the  Symbol  of  that  Divine  and  Perfect  TRUTH 
that  dazzles  the  eyes  of  all  except  the  Eagles  and  the  Hawks, 
which  in  ancient  Egypt  were  sacred  to  ATUM,  AMUX-RA,  and 
MEXDES,  the  great  Gods  ! 

This  Divine  and  perfect  TRUTH,  known  only  to  the  Iliero- 
phants  and  the  Sages,  and  of  which  Herodotus,  Hermes,  and 
Plutarch  speak  in  enigmas  and  by  obscure  hints,  has  often  died 
and  risen  again  from  the  dead.  Wounded  unto  death  by  that 
literal  interpretation  of  the  holy  writings  that  has  been  so 
fruitful  of  narrow  and  short-sighted  creeds,  it  lived  again  and 
became  immortal  for  the  Initiates,  when  the  Christ  raised  it, 
as  he  did  Lazarus,  its  personification,  from  the  tomb.  The 
Rulejmdi  the  Square  are  apt  symbols  of  the  rectangularity  and 
stiff  precision  of  that  interpretation  which  makes  a  figurative 
Oriental  book  to  have  been  written,  as  it  were,  in  Geneva,  or 
by  an  unimaginative  Puritan  or  Presbyterian. 

"  The  Letter  killetli ;  hit  the  Spirit  vivifies."  The  Rule 
and  Square  of  a  stunted  and  pedantic  verbal  interpretation 
wounded  this  Divine  Truth  unto  the  death ;  and  at  last  Or- 
thodoxy always  resorts  to  the  Mace  or  Mallet  of  Force,  with 
which  the  Priests  slaughtered  the  sacrificial  victim  at  the 


22  LEGENDA,   I. 

bloody  altar  which  Israel  borrowed  from  the  worshippers  of 
Baal  and  of  Moloch,  and  whose  horns  dripping  witli  gore  re- 
vealed its  origin.  Thus  read,  the  sacred  oracles  of  all  nations, 
intelligible  to  the  Sages,  are  fruitful  of  idolatries  among  the 
vulgar.  All  the  mythologies  are  but  allegories  accepted  as  the 
recitals  of  facts  ;  the  Truth  hidden  under  the  veil  cf  the  Sym- 
bol remaining  invisible  within  the  Holy  of  Holies,  where  the 
Visible  Presence  dwells  for  the  true  Initiate  between  the 
cherubim. 


LEGEXDA.  II. 


31  enigma  of    (be   Sphpx 


THE 


ENIGMA  OF  THE   SPHYNX. 


IT  is  in  its  antique  Symbols  and  their  occult  meaning 
that  the  true  secrets  of  Freemasonry  consist.  These  must 
reveal  its  real  nature  and  true  purposes  ;  and  in  these,  also, 
consists  its  superiority  over  all  other  Associations. 

ISTot  all  its  Symbols  are  ancient.  Some  were  adopted  from 
the  English  and  Scottish  Craft  of  Stone-Masonry,  when  those 
who  created  the  order,  somewhat  before  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  assumed  the  name  of  Free-Masons,  by 
which,  in  the  old  English  statutes,  those  who  worked  in  free 
stone,  as  contradistinguished  from  those  who  worked  in 
rough  stone,  were  known.*  And  some  of  the  Symbols  now 

*  The  Statute  of  Labourer?  [25  EDW.  III..  Slat.  1]  had  this  provision  :  Item  qe  carpen- 
ters, masons,  teglers,  et  auters  coverours  (or  overours)  des  mesons,  ne  preignent  le  jour  pur 
lour  otereygne  forsqe  en  manere  come  Us  soloient ;  cest  assaver  mestre  carpenter  Hi  d. 
et  an/re  ii  d.  mestre  mason  de  franche  piere  iv.  d.  et  aittre  mason  Hi  d.  et  leur  serraniz 
i  d.  ob.  ;  teguler  Hi  d.  et  son  garceon  i  d.  ob.,  d-c. ;  the  translation  whereof  in  the  Statutes 
at  Large  i?,  "  Also  that  Carpenter?,  Masons,  Tilers,  and  other  workmen  of  Houses,  shall 
not  take  by  the  day  for  their  work,  but  in  manner  as  they  were  wont ;  that  is  to  say,  a 
Master  Carpenter  three-pence,  and  another  two-pence ;  a  Master  Freemason  four-pence, 
and  other  Masons  three-pence,  and  their  servants  one  penny  half-penny ;  Tylers  three- 
pence, and  their  knaves  one  penny  half-penny,  &c. 

The  Statute  34  Ei>w.  III.,  Chap,  ix  ,  entitled  "The  Statute  of  Labourers  confirmed, 
altered  and  enforced,"  provided  that  "  the  Carpenters  and  Masons  take  from  henceforth 
wages  by  the  day,  and  not  by  the  week  nor  in  other  manner ;  and  that  the  Chief  Masters 
of  Carpenters  and  Masons  [les  chiefs  mestres  des  Carpenters  et  Maceons]  take  four-pence 
by  the  day  ;  and  that  all  alliances  and  covines  of  Masons  and  Carpenters,  and  congre- 
gations, chapters,  ordinances,  and  oaths  betwixt  them  made  or  to  be  made,  shall  be 
from  henceforth  void  and  wholly  annulled ;  go  that  every  Mason  and  Carpenter,  of 
what  condition  soever  he  be,  shall  be  compelled  by  his  master  to  whom  he  serveth,  to 
do  every  work  that  to  him  pertaineth  to  do,  either  of  free  <tone  or  of  rough  stone,  [ou  dt 
fraunche  pere  ou  de  grosse  pere] .  And  also  every  Carpenter  in  his  degree.11 

And  in  the  Statute  2  &  3  EDW.VI.,  Chap,  xv.,  entitled  "  An  act  touching  Victuallers 


26  THE   .ENIGMA   OF  THE   SPHYNX. 

used  in  the  Blue  Lodges  of  the  United  States  are  of  still 
more  recent  manufacture ;  as,  for  example,  Time  combing 
out  the  ringlets  of  the  Virgin's  hair,  and  the  two  parallel 
lines  with  the  Holy  Bible  resting  upon  them. 

Freemasonry  has  been  many  different  things,  at  different 
periods,  and  in  the  hands  of  different  persons.  It  is  not  one 
and  the  same  thing  everywhere  now.  In  some  countries  it  is 
now  a  political  association,  its  degrees  having  for  its  Initiates 
no  philosophical  signification  whatever.  In  the  United 
States,  the  Blue  Degrees  teach  morality  only,  refuse  to  inter- 
meddle with  questions  political  or  religious,  and  require  only 
a  belief  in  God,  and,  faintly,  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul ; 
except  so  far  as  they  declare  the  Holy  Bible  to  be  the  rule 
and  guide  of  man's  conduct,  and  the  inspired  Word  of  God  ; 
which,  if  it  were  not  evaded  in  practice,  by  the  admission  of 
Hebrews,  would  make  the  Masonry  of  the  United  States  a 
strictly  Christian  Association.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Freemasonry  was,  for  many  of  its  Initiates, 
the  teaching  of  the  Hermetic  philosophy.  There  are,  we  are 
told,  six  different  Kadoshes,  that  which  belongs  to  the  Ancient 
and  Accepted  Scottish  Kite  being  the  veritable  philosophical 
Kadosh :  and  so  there  have  been,  and  still  are,  several  Free- 
masonries,  of  which  this  Rite  is  the  only  true  philosophical  one. 

It  has  been  objected  to  us,  that  in  our  lectures  we  under- 
value that  which  is  absurdly  called  "  Symbolic  Masonry,"  as 
if  any  Masonry  could  be  not  symbolic. 

It  is  quite  true  that  wre  should  not  value  it,  if  we  saw  noth- 
ing in  the  Symbols  of  the  Blue  Lodge  beyond  the  imbecile 

and  Handicraftsmen,"  we  find  "  the  Craft,  mystery  or  occupation  of  Victuallers"  spoken 
of.  and  provision  "  that  no  person  or  person*  shall  at  any  time  after  the  first  clay  of  April 
next  coming,  interrupt,  deny,  let,  or  obstruct  any  Free  Mason,  Bough  Mai-on,  Carpenter, 
Bricklayer,  &c.,  to  work  in  any  of  the  paid  crafts." 

And  in  the  Statute  3  &  4  EDW.  VI.,  Chap,  xx.,  repealing  a  certain  branch  of  the  act  last 
before  mentioned,  and  reciting  it,  we  find  "  the  Artificers  and  Craftsmen  of  the  arts, 
crafts,  and  mysteries  aforesaid"  spoken  of,  and  "  the  Free-men,  being  artificers  of  the 
crafts,  arts,  swdmysteriet  aforesaid." 


THE  .ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHYNX.  27 

pretences  of  interpretation  of  them  contained  in  the  ordinary 
sterile  instruction  which  we  owe  to  Webb  and  his  predeces- 
sors. These  misinterpretations  are  not  so  much  guesses  at  the 
true  meaning,  as  merely  arbitrary  and  unwarranted  expla- 
nations, invented  with  but  a  moderate  degree  of  ingenuity, 
and  no  more  authoritative  or  genuine  than  any  others  that 
an  ingenious  fancy  might  invent  to-day.  To  pretend  that 
they  have  been  transmitted  to  us  from  antiquity  is  a  mere 
fable.  By  the  same  process,  an  Egyptian  hieroglyph  might 
be  made  to  mean  anything. 

.  To  these  pretended  interpretations  it  is  owing,  and  to  those 
blind  guides  who  look  no  further  into  Masonry,  that  intelligent 
men  iind  so  little  to  attract  and  interest  them  in  Masonic 
Symbolism,  and  that  much  which  is  found  in  the  degrees  seems 
trivial  and  sometimes  absurd. 

Freemasonry  must  once  have  had  other  and  very  different 
purposes,  and  other  and  vastly  more  interesting  and  impor- 
tant objects,  than  those  for  which,  in  the  United  States  and 
England,  at  least,  it  now  exists.  All  of  its  symbols,  that  are 
not  merely  modern  inventions,  have  a  concealed  meaning, 
which  never  appeared  in  the  Liturgies  or  Rituals,  these  con 
taining  only  hints  cautiously  given,  and  ideas  easily  misunder- 
stood (and  so  intended  to  be)  by  all  but  the  Adepts. 

The  legends  of  the  different  degrees,  that  of  the  third  in- 
cluded, and  those  which  purport  to  give  historical  accounts  of 
the  progress  and  transmission  of  Masonry  during  the  Middle 
Age,  and  up  to  the  year  1700,  are  told  as  if  they  contained 
statements  of  tacts.  So  were  the  parables  of  Jesus  of 
Kazareth,  spoken  by  him  to  his  disciples,  and  which  they 
found  hard  to  understand.  "We  have  not  felt  at  liberty  to 
discard  them.  But  these  legends  are  neither  historical  nor 
traditional ;  and  in  that  respect  it  is  true  to  say  that  Masonry 
has  no  real  traditions,  but  only  inventions.  There  is  not  the 


28  THE  ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHYNX. 

slightest  evidence  that  the  legend  of  the  third  degree  is  true. 
It  is  not  historical,  and  it  has  not  come  to  us  by  tradition. 
It  is  allegorical  ;  and  its  signification  is  revealed  by  the  name 
of  the  Hero  of  the  legend  in  its  resemblance  to  HERMES. 
The  accounts  given  of  the  connection  of  the  Masons  with  the 
rebuilding  of  the  Second  Temple  are  simply  allegorical,  having 
a  meaning  which  you  may  hereafter  come  to  know:  and  the 
recitals  of  the  career  of  the  Perfect  Elect  have  no  foundation 
iu  fact.  They  are  but  allegorical  and  legendary.  We  pre- 
serve them,  but  we  do  not  give  you  or  the  world  solemn  as- 
surances of  their  truth,  or  gravely  pretend  that  they  are  his- 
torical or  genuine  traditions. 

If  the  Initiate  is  permitted  for  a  little  while  to  think  so,  it 
is  because  he  may  not  prove  worthy  to  receive  the  Light ; 
and  that,  if  he  should  prove  treacherous  or  unworthy,  he 
should  be  able  only  to  babble  to  the  Profane  of  legends  and 
fables,  signifying  to  them  nothing,  and  with  as  little  apparent 
meaning  or  value  as  the  seeming  jargon  of  the  Alchemists. 
In  times  when  it  is  unpopular  or  dangerous  to  teach  the 
truth,  Wisdom  sometimes  wisely  wears  the  mask  of  Folly, 
and  many  of  the  grotesque  fables  of  the  old  mythologies  and 
of  the  myths  that  came  afterward  to  be  regarded  as  history, 
had  a  like  origin. 

But  when  it  is  gravely  and  persistently  attempted  to  trans- 
form mere  follies  and  pretended  traditions  into  historical 
facts,  to  deny  or  doubt  which  is  to  be  heretical  or  sceptical, 
and  these  pretended  facts  of  history  are  imposed  upon  a 
whole  Order  and  upon  the  world,  and  excite  the  derision  and 
contempt  of  men  of  learning,  it  is  time  to  endeavor,  from 
the  mass  of  historical  falsehoods,  to  extricate  the  simple  truth. 
If  the  fabulous  and  the  false  were  ever  useful  to  Masonry,  they 
have  ceased  to  be  so  now,  and  it  is  able  to  stand  alone  without 
their  support. 


THE   ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHINX.  29 

That  the  Freemasonry  of  the  present  day  dates  more,  at  the 
most,  than  a  few  years  back  of  the  year  1700,  is  as  utterly  un- 
sustained  by  evidence  or  tradition  entitled  to  respect  as  the 
pretences  that  it  is  in  any  way  or  degree  the  successor  of  or 
connected  with  the  Dionysian  architects  or  the  German 
workers  in  stone,  or  the  English  or  Scottish  Freemasons  of 
the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries,  or  as  the 
fables  of  the  holding  of  a  Grand  Lodge  at  York,  by  the  son  of 
Athelstanc,  or  of  the  existence  of  a  Grand  Lodge  in  that  place 
before  the  year  1780,  or  of  Encampments  of  Masonic  Tem- 
plars anywhere  in  England  from  time  immemorial. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  there  was  any  revival  of  Free- 
masonry in  England  in  1717,  or  that  the  Lodges  and  Socie- 
ties of  operative  Stone  Masons  then  became  bodies  having  no 
connection  whatever  with  the  operative  "  Art,  Craft,  and  Mys- 
tery." There  was,  on  the  contrary,  then  or  not  long  before, 
the  institution  of  a  new  Association,  for  purposes  carefully  con- 
cealed, and  which,  for  a  concealed  reason,  assumed  the  name 
of  Freemasonry. 

"We  think  that  the  concealed  reason  for  assuming  that  name 
was,  that  the  Hebrew  word  Amim  means  both  a  Mason  and 
faithful  or  loyal;  and  that  the  new  associates  called  themselves 
Masons,  because  of  this  double  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word, 
and  because  the  Initiates  were  anciently  called  The  Faithful ; 
and  we  also  think  that  the  new  Association  was  first  estab- 
lished in  Scotland,  by  adherents  of  the  House  of  Stuart, 
represented  Charles  I.  by  Hiram,  and  meant  by  the  word 
Mason,  one  faithful  and  loyal  to  that  House. 

There  are  concealed  meanings,  also,  beyond  any  question, 
in  words  and  phrases  where,  as  yet,  such  meanings  are 
unsuspected;  as  there  were  in  the  name  of  the  Master  and 
Architect,  in  the  two  grips  that  fail  and  the  one  that  suc- 
ceeds, in  the  names  of  the  assassins,  in  the  Symbolic  Tern- 


30  THE    .ENIGMA   OF   THE   SPHYXX. 

pie,  its  erection,  its  destruction,  and  its  rebuilding,  and  in  the 
Triads  of  the  Lodge  and  ceremonial.  Such  meanings  have 
already  been  found  in  questions  and  answers  aid  phrases 
which  had  seemed  meaningless  or  absurd,  as  in  the  "  chalk, 
charcoal,  and  clay,"  and  the  clothing  of  "  blue  and  gold" 
of  the  Master.  The  real  meaning  of  the  substitute  for  the 
Master's  word  is  concealed  with  singular  ingenuity;  and  in 
this  and  other  cases,  ignorance  has,  by  its  interpolations, 
superadded  a  second  veil,  more  impenetrable  than  the  first. 

We  do  not  mean  that  there  are  these  concealed  meanings  in 
all  the  degrees  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Kite. 
Some  of  them,  like  other  and  more  modern  degrees,  never 
had  any  particular  meaning  or  significance  or  purpose.  The 
inventors  of  degrees  were  not  always  adepts. 

It  is  not  Blue  Masonry  itself  that  we  undervalue.  Nor  do 
we  undervalue  its  symbols  and  legends.  We  contemn  only 
the  untrue  explanations  of  them.  They  are  themselves  full  of 
interest  to  us,  and  are  worthy  to  be  the  subjects  of  incessant 
study.  It  may  be  that  we  0iv?;'-estimate  them.  For  we  think 
that  many  of  the  Symbols  had  their  origin  in  the  infancy 
and  at  the  source  of  civilization,  that  their  interpretations 
were  for  many  centuries  transmitted  from  one  to  another  of 
the  adepts,  and  that  many  have  been  lost  in  the  long  passage. 

Of  other  portions  of  the  Symbolism,  not  more  than  two 
centuries  old,  there  were  also,  we  think,  concealed  interpreta- 
tions, indicating  the  political  and  religious  doctrines  and 
purposes  of  those  who  used  the  degrees,  invented  the  DOW 
Symbols,  and  appropriated  the  old.  If  this  is  to  undervalue 
the  three  degrees,  words  have  lost  their  meaning. 

It  seems  to  us  that  Masonic  students,  seeking  to  learn 
the  real  meaning  of  the  Symbols  of  the  Blue  Lodge,  have 
adopted  wrong  methods,  sought  in  the  wrong  direction  for  the 
keys  of  interpretation,  looked  over  and  beyond  that  which 


THE  ENIGMA  OF  THE   SPHYXX.  31 

lay  at  their  feet  and  close  to  them  all  around,  into  a  distant 
darkness,  lighted  only  by  the  delusive  gleams  of  ignes  fatui. 
We  do  not  speak  of  the  babblers  who  have  merely  followed 
the  old  track,  repeated  the  old  commonplaces,  and  incubated 
only  on  the  mysterious  texts ;  but  of  the  few  real  students 
who  have  endeavored  by  real  scholarship  to  interpret  the 
obscure  oracles  and  elucidate  the  symbols  of  the  Lodge. 

These  have  overlooked  the  obvious  truth  that  the  symbols 
of  antiquity  were  not  used  to  reveal,  but  to  conceal,  like  the 
hieroglyphs,  the  idols,  and  the  sacred  language  of  the  Brah- 
mins :  that  each  is  an  enigma  to  be  solved,  and  not  a  lesson  to 
be  read ;  a  hieroglyph  to  be  deciphered,  and  not  the  letter 
of  a  vulgar  alphabet,  familiar  to  all.  The  symbols  of  the  wise 
have  in  all  ages  become  the  idols  of  the  vulfjar.  "What!  is 
this  the  Builder?"  seems  to  us  as  far  from  being  a  true  inter- 
pretation, as  "marrow  in  the  bone/'  That  which  is  so 
rendered,  and  the  necessity  of  the  presence  of  three,  can  be 
made  to  reveal,  we  think,  a  wholly  different  meaning. 

We  do  not  believe  that  the  meaning  of  the  Blue  Degrees  or 
their  symbols,  or  of  any  other  of  the  degrees,  is  to  be  learned 
by  explorations  among  the  rubbish  of  Egyptian  antiquity. 
Some  of1  the  symbols  are  to  be  found  there,  and,  older  still,  in 
the  religious  mysteries  of  other  countries  ;  but  the  explanations 
were  never  written,  for  any  to  read  who  chose.  Like  the  oracles 
of  the  Gods,  they  were  always  covered  with  a  veil,  spoken 
of  in  enigmatical  language,  and  false  interpretations  of  them 
publicly  given,  to  mislead  those  to  whom  it  was  not  deemed 
wise  to  intrust  them.  This  was  done  in  all  the  mysteries,  to 
the  end  that  it  might  be  known,  after  a  time,  who  among  the 
many  had  the  intelligence,  the  zeal,  and  the  eagerness  for 
knowledge,  that  could  enable  them  to  divine  or  entitle  them 
to  receive,  in  a  higher  circle,  the  true  explanations,  know  the 
mysterious  secrets,  and  become  possessed  of  the  Holy  doctrine. 


32  THE   ^ENIGMA  OF  THE   SPHYNX. 

We  think  that  these  secret  meanings  are  always  concealed 
in  one  manner  and  upon  one  plan,  the  same  as  those  by  which 
the  Alchemists  and  Hermetic  philosophers  and  Kabalists 
concealed  their  meaning  under  the  double  veil  of  their  jargon 
and  its  pretended  interpretation,  the  true  signification  being 
only  hinted  at  and  perhaps  never  openly  disclosed.  We  think 
that  there  is  less  that  is  really  trivial  in  the  ceremonial  of  the 
Blue  Degrees  than  appears  upon  its  face ;  and  that  almost 
everything  has  an  occult  significance,  much  of  which  is  per- 
haps so  completely  lost,  that  it  may  never  be  discovered. 
We  doubt  if  we  yet  know  the  meaning  of  some  of  the  simplest 
things:  and  we  are  sure  that  very  little  is  correctly  explained 
in  the  Blue  Lodge,  even  the  preparation  of  the  Candidate, 
and  the  relative  positions  of  the  Compasses  and  the  Square  in 
the  different  degrees. 

We  know  that  the  mysteries  of  Mithra  were  practised  in 
Rome  even  after  Christianity  became  the  State  religion 
of  the  Empire.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  succes- 
sion of  Initiates  was  continued  until  the  times  of  the  latest 
Crusades,  in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor.  It  is  known  that  the 
Ismaelites  had  secret  ceremonies  of  some  kind,  and  they  still 
survive  among  the  Druses.  Such  institutions,  in  such  a 
country,  do  not  die  out.  The  testimony  given  when  Philip 
and  Clement  crushed  the  order  of  the  Temple,  proved  at  least 
the  fact  that  the  Knights  had  brought  from  the  East  some 
ceremony  of  secret  initiation  that  the  Pope  hated,  and  per- 
haps the  King  feared.  The  knowledge  of  the  rites  and 
symbols  of  these  initiations,  even  if  confined  to  a  few,  was 
not  likely  to  be  wholly  lost  among  the  successors  of  the 
Templars,  who  would,  on  the  contrary,  cling  the  more  firmly 
to  it  because  they  were  persecuted.  The  Roman  de  la  Rose 
is  symbolical,  and  so  in  the  highest  degree  is  the  Divina  Corn- 
media  of  Dante.  The  Rosicrucians  and  the  Alchemists,  all 


THE   ENIGMA   OF   THE   SPHINX.  33 

of  whom  were  anti-papal,  and  the  Hermeticists,  had  some 
knowledge  of  the  ancient  Initiations.  Of  this  there  is  evi- 
dence enough.  Naturally  we  should  not  expect  to  find  it 
openly  avowed. 

Maier  says :  "  Like  the  Pythagoreans  and  Egyptians,  the 
Rosicrucians  exact  vows  of  silence  and  secrecy.  Ignorant 
men  have  treated  the  whole  as  a  fiction  ;  but  this  has  arisen 
from  the  five  years'  probation  to  which  they  subject  even  well 
qualified  servitors,  before  they  are  admitted  to  the  higher 
mysteries ;  and  within  this  period  they  are  to  learn  how  to 
govern  their  own  tongues." 

Michael  Maier  wrote  a  work  especially  dedicated  to  "  that 
Order  which  has  hitherto  lain  concealed,  but  is  now  made 
known  by  the  report  of  the  Fraternity,  and  their  admirable 
and  probable  confession  ;"  and  he  is  said  to  have  transplanted 
the  Rosicrucianism  of  Andrea  from  Germany  into  England. 

At  all  events,  we  know  that  early  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, many  of  the  learned  heads  in  England  were  occupied 
with  theosophy,  kabalism,  and  alchemy.  Chief  among  these 
was  Dr.  Robert  Fludd,  who  began  to  write  in  1616,  and  died 
in  1637.  He  wrote  t}iQ  jSummwn  JSonum,  published  in  1629, 
and  an  Apology  for  the  Rosicrucians,  published  in  1617. 
He  was  intimate  with  Maier,  while  the  latter  was  in  England, 
and  as  the  books  published  in  Germany,  relating  to  alchemy 
or  other  occult  knowledge,  were  sent  to  England  and  speedily 
translated,  he  could  easily  have  become  acquainted  with  the 
three  works  of  Andrea. 

About  1633  the  name  of  Rosicrucians  was  dropped  in  Eng- 
land, and  that  of  Sophoi,  Sages  or  Adepts,  adopted.  "  We 
transmute,"  said  Fludd,  "the  dead  stones  into  living  philo- 
sophical stones."  Elias  Ashmole,  the  antiquary,  was  one  of 
this  sect,  who,  as  is  well  known,  was  received  into  a  Lodge  of 
Operative  Masons.  He,  with  William  Lilly,  Drs.  Wharton 
3 


34  THE    .ENIGMA   OF  THE   SPHYNX. 

and  Hewson,  and  others,  established  a  Society  which  had  some 
meetings  at  Warrington,  about  1646,  before  it  was  finally- 
settled  in  London.  Their  purpose  was  to  construct,  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  the  House  of  Solomon  on  the  Island 
of  Bensalem,  in  secret,  and  they  clothed  their  purpose  in 
symbols.  Nicolai  of  Berlin  says  that  they  first  erected  the 
pillars  of  Hermes,  from  whose  holy  sentences  lamblichus 
answered  all  the  doubts  of  Porphyry.  Then  they  advanced, 
by  a  ladder  of  seven  steps,  to  a  chequered  pavement,  and 
were  shown  the  symbols  of  the  Creation  or  the  work  of  five 
days.  And,  Nicolai  says,  "  to  cover  their  secret  and  mysterious 
meetings,  they  got  admitted,  in  London,  into  the  Masons' 
Company,  and  held  their  meetings  at  the  Masons'  Hall,  in 
Masons'  Alley,  Basinghall-street,  and  as  freemen  of  London 
could  take  the  name  of  Freemasons." 

There  would  of  course  be  no  history  or  record  of  the  origin  of 
the  new  Initiation.  There  is  none  of  the  origin  of  the  mysteries 
or  of  any  Ancient  Order.  Their  first  beginnings  are  always 
secret,  and  not  intrusted  to  the  treachery  of  written  records. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Association  or  Order  became  suddenly 
and  at  a  bound,  a  different  thing  from  that  which  it  was 
before,  ceasing  at  once  to  be  operative,  and  multiplying  its 
members  with  great  rapidity  among  all  classes  of  men.  It  is 
especially  nonsensical  to  derive  Masonry  in  its  present  form 
from  the  Steinmetzen  and  Operative  Masons,  while  admitting 
that  neither  of  these  ever  practised  anything  like  the  Master's 
Degree,  in  which,  it  may  be  said,  Blue  Masonry  wholly  con- 
sists. We  know  that  the  Degree  had  no  existence  until  the 
year  1723,  perhaps  a  year  or  two  later.  It  would  naturally 
be  confined  to  a  few,  at  first,  and  kept  a  profound  secret. 

Made   in   this  way,  probably   by  Desaguliers  and   his  as- 
sociates, it  is  in  one  sense  modern,  much  more  so  .than  the 
Croix ;  but  in  another  it  is  of  an   unknown  antiquity; 


.ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHYNX.  35 

for  it  had  the  symbols  and  the  symbolic  ceremony,  ii  its  chief 
features,  that  were  first  used  by  the  Hierophants  in  India,  and 
afterward  carried  into  Assyria,  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Persia,  and 
Greece ;  and  it  has  condensed,  as  it  were,  into  these  symbols, 
all  the  great  and  mysterious  truths  of  the  old  Theosophy  and 
Philosophy.  It  is,  indeed,  to  those  who  can  read  its  symbols 
aright,  philosophy  embodied  in  and  taught  by  Symbols. 

Surely  this  is  not  to  undervalue  the  Masonry  of  the  Blue 
Lodges,  in  all  the  Degrees  of  which  the  Ancient  Symbols  are 
found  intermingled  with  modern  ones,  adopted  and  adapted 
to  mislead  all  but  the  Sages  and  the  Adepts.  Thus  viewed, 
Freemasonry  is  the  heritage  given  to  us  by  the  remotest  Past ; 
the  greatest,  the  oldest,  the  most  venerable  of  all  human 
institutions.  Its  so-called  traditions  are  but  Symbols  and 
Enigmas  that  speak  an  intelligible  language  to  the  Adept, 
who  knows  that  they  are  neither  the  recital  of  facts  verified 
by  history,  nor  actual  occurrences  whose  memory  is  preserved 
by  tradition. 

The  Apprentice  is  bound  to  secrecy  and  silence  alone,  and 
his  manhood  and  courage  are  tested  by  the  faint  images  of 
the  old  Initiations.  The  Fellow-craft  is  amused  by  the 
rudimentary  instruction  known  to  school-boys.  Yet  each  is 
surrounded  by  the  old  and  eloquent  Symbols  of  the  Orient, 
which  the  Ancient  Isis  holds  out  to  them,  while  no  word  is- 
sues from  her  silent,  stony  lips.  The  sands  of  the  desert  cover 
all  but  the  head  of  the  mysterious  Sphynx,  and  that,  impassive 
as  the  pyramids  themselves,  utters  no  oracles.  The  Master 
Mason  sees  in  the  ceremonies  Symbols  still  more  significant, 
and  in  which  the  profoundest  truths  are  hidden ;  b  At  for  ex- 
planations he  hears  but  an  idle  babble  of  words,  and,  u  lie  knew 
aught  of  the  truth,  would  begin  to  understand  the  allegorical 
punishment  of  Tantalus.  He  became  a  Master,  that  he  might 
obtain  the  Master's  WOKD,  and  with  it  travel  into  foreign 


36  ENIGMA  OF  THE   SPHYNX. 

countries  and  earn  a  Master's  wages.  But  he  is  misled  try 
a  Substitute  that  lias  for  him  no  meaning,  although  it  indeed 
contains  his  reward  if  he  but  knew  it.  So  far  from  finding 
his  Masonry  universal,  he  cannot  demand  assistance  in  danger 
anywhere  except  in  his  own  country,  and  wherever  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  spoken.  He  cannot  gain  admittance  into  a 
Lodge  in  Denmark,  Norway,  or  Sweden,  and  hardly  in  Can- 
ada, if  the  law  of  the  Order  is  enforced  there.  Yerily  he  has 
not  the  Master's  WOKD,  by  which  to  travel  into  foreign 
countries  and  earn  the  wages  of  a  Master. 

We  have  heard,  even  to  nausea,  the  assertion  a  thousand 
times  repeated,  that  the  Degrees  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted 
Rite  are  no  higher  than  the  Blue  Degrees,  and  that  they  are 
no  part  of  genuine  Masonry.  They  are  higher,  nevertheless, 
because  they  are  not  conferred  indiscriminately  on  all,  nor 
intended  to  be  popular;  and  because  they  illustrate  and 
explain  the  Symbols  of  the  Blue  Lodge.  And  they  are 
Masonic,  if  by  Masonry  we  mean  initiation  into  the  mysteries. 
If  we  do  not  mean  that,  all  Masonry  is  contained  in  the 
Apprentice's  Degree. 

If  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite,  the  Masonry  of 
Heredom,  the  Rose  Croix  and  the  Holy  House,  commends 
itself  to,  and  satisfies  those  who  obtain  its  Degrees,  that  is 
enough.  It  is  not  its  mission  to  teach  others ;  and  still  less, 
to  publish  in  books,  with  a  view  to  money-making,  those 
things  which  ought  to  be  taught  in  the  sanctuaries  only.  We 
need  not  lament  if  others  are  satisfied  with  the  instruction  of 
the  Blue  Lodge;  and  if  we  advance  slowly,  we  at  least  do  not 
have  to  complain,  year  after  year,  until  the  world  wearies  of 
it,  that  the  doors  of  our  sanctuaries  swing  too  smoothly  on 
their  hinges,  and  that  our  initiates  are  multiplied  with  dan- 
gerous rapidity,  through  over-eagerness  for  numbers  and  for 
the  fees  for  receptions. 


ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHYNX.  37 

Masonry  claims  to  be  an  advance  toward  the  Light.  That 
Light  is  Truth.  How  far  does  Symbolic  or  Blue  Masonry 
advance  toward  it? 

None  of  the  Truths  of  physical  science  are  taught  in  either 
of  the  Blue  Degrees.  The  letter  G  hangs  in  the  east,  and  the 
Candidate  is  told  that  it  is  the  initial  of  the  word  Geometry ; 
and  the  names  of  the  seven  liberal  arts  and  sciences  as  known 
to  the  ancients  are  repeated  to  him,  with  the  names  of  the 
five  Orders  of  Architecture.  His  whole  Geometrical  instruc- 
tion consists  in  looking  at  the  diagram  of  the  forty-seventh 
Problem  of  Euclid,  and  receiving  no  explanation  of  it. 

Other  Truth  than  that  of  the  physical  sciences  is  Moral, 
Intellectual,  Political,  or  Religious. 

Blue  Masonry  utters  a  few  of  the  commonest  dicta  of  moral 
Truth,  known  and  familiar  to  all  men  in  all  ages.  It  does  no 
more.  It  limits  itself  to  so  much  as  is  useful  to  bind  together 
in  a  kind  of  Brotherhood  the  mass  of  a  numerous  Order.  In 
the  lesser  mysteries  no  more  was  ever  required.  Its  foui 
Cardinal  Virtues  are  Prudence,  Fortitude,  Temperance,  and 
Justice.  An  Initiate  of  a  secret  Order  must  be  prudent  and 
cautious  to  reveal  nothing  to  the  Profane,  to  conceal  the  fact 
that  he  belongs  to  the  Order,  or  perhaps  that  there  is  such  an 
one.  He  must  have  fortitude  to  foil  all  attempts  by  force  or 
torture  to  compel  him  to  divulge  these  secrets ;  and  also  to 
be  able  to  do  efficiently  what  the  Order  may  require  of  him. 
He  must  be  temperate,  for  the  drunken  man  divulges  all 
secrets  and  becomes  incapable  to  perform  any  duty  well ;  and 
ae  must  be  just  to  his  fellows,  and  not  wrong  one  of  them  of 
me  value  of  anything,  or  there  can  be  no  unity  or  harmony. 
There  must\)&  harmony  amongthe  workmen,  because  harmony 
s  essential  to  the  success  of  every  Secret  Association.  The 
tenets  of  the  Order  are  said  to  be  Brotherly  Love,  Relief,  and 
Truth.  These  are  common  to  every  Association.  Used  every- 


38  ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHYNX. 

where,  the  n,'  me  of  Brother  amounts  to  little  anywhere,  since 
the  time  of  Jacob  and  Esau. 

Thus  the  morality  of  Masonry  in  these  Degrees  suffices  for 
its  purpose,  and  aims  at  no  more.  The  Brethren  are  to  meet 
on  the  level,  to  act,  walk,  and  work  by  the  plumb,  and  to  part 
on  the  square.  They  are  punctiliously  to  obey  the  law  of 
just  dealing  and  honest  uprightness.  Without  these,  there 
could  be  no  bond  of  union  to  insure  the  success  of  the  objects 
of  the  Order.  What  that  object  is,  they  are  never  told.  It 
was  not  meant  that  they  should  knoiv  it. 

We  hear  nothing  of  generosity,  of  self-sacrifice,  of  toleration. 
Hiram  is  not  the  Apostle  of  these.  He  leads  no  crusade 
against  Error,  Bigotry,  Intolerance,  Abuses,  and  Villainies. 
He  is  simply  the  type  of  the  Initiate  who  dies  rather  than 
divulge  the  Secret  Word  of  the  Association.  The  Apprentice 
is  bound  to  Secrecy  only:  the  Fellow-craft,  to  obey  his 
Superiors,  and  to  run  to  and  fro  when  they  command,  and 
not  to  wrong  a  fellow  or  cheat  a  Lodge.  The  Master  is  to 
keep  a  Master's  Secret*;  to  aid  and  assist  a  comrade;  to 
respect  the  virtue  of  his  relatives ;  not  to  speak  ill  of  him, 
not  to  strike  or  wound  him,  except  in  self-defence.  In 
all  this  we  see,  not  a  great  system  of  morals,  but  only  enforce- 
ment of  the  mutual  offices  of  service  and  duty,  of  the  members 
of  a  Secret  Association  to  which  it  was  dangerous  to  be- 
long, and  whose  object  was  not  known  to  the  mass  of  initi- 
ates. 

Compare  all  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Blue  Degrees  with, 
we  will  not  say  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  but  the  Proverbs  of 
Solomon,  the  teachings  of  Socrates,  Confucius,  Zarathustra, 
Seneca,  or  Mahomet;  and  one  page  of  either  will  convince 
any  intelligent  man  that  the  Masonry  of  the  Level,  Plumb, 
and  Square  is  not  a  system  of  Morals,  not  even  the  handbook 
or  primer  of  such  a  system.  The  Zendavesta,  the  Chinese 


THE  ENIGMA  OF  THE   SPHYNX.  39 

Books,  and  even  the  Koran,  are,  in  their  moral  teachings,  to 
Blue  Masonry,  like  an  oration  of  Cicero  or  an  essay  of  Plato  to 
the  first  utterances  of  a  child. 

Of  political  truth,  nothing  whatever  is  taught  in  the  Blue 
Masonry  of  the  English  Eite.  Nothing  is  heard  in  it  of 
free  government,  the  rights  of  the  people,  the  rights  of  man, 
or  of  free  thought,  free  conscience,  and  free  speech.  On  the 
contrary,  the  Mason  was  to  be  submissive  to  the  laws  of  Par- 
liament, the  supreme  Legislature,  which  had  changed  the 
succession  to  the  Throne,  and  to  support  the  House  of  Hanover 
against  the  House  of  Stuart,  not  engaging  in  plots  or  con- 
spiracies against  the  State.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Ritual 
to  oft'end  Pope  or  King,  Inquisitor  or  Jesuit.  All  the 
Symbols  that  had  originally  and  still  have  in  the  Scottish 
Rite,  a  political  meaning,  have  been  assiduously  misinter- 
preted, until  they  teach  no  political  Truth  whatever. 

The  Masonry  of  the  Higher  Degrees  teaches  the  great  truths 
of  Intellectual  Science  ;  but  as  to  all  these,  even  as  to  the 
rudiments  and  first  principles,  Blue  Masonry  is  absolutely  dumb. 
Its  drama  seems  intended  to  teach  the  resurrection  of  the 
body ;  but  it  teaches  nothing  more.  As  the  truths  of  politics, 
the  great  principles  of  human  freedom,  free  government,  free 
thought,  and  free  conscience  could  not  safely  be  proclaimed 
to  the  mass  of  Initiates  as  the  cause  to  which  by  their  associ- 
ation and  by  the  oaths  that  insured  secrecy  and  co-operation, 
they  were  to  be  devoted,  so  it  was  unnecessary,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  such  union  and  co-operation,  to  teach  the  philosophical 
truth. 

Of  this,  and  of  religious  Truth,  all  that  is  taught  is  included 
in  a  single  question  and  answer :  "  In  whom  do  you  put  your 
trust?"— "In  God."  It  was  necessary  that  a  Candidate 
should  profess  his  belief  in  a  Deity,  since  otherwise  his  oath 
would  have  no  more  binding  force  than  a  simple  promise. 


40  .ENIGMA   OF  THE   SPHYNX. 

For  the  purposes  of  the  Order,  no  more  was  necessary. 
Wherefore  he  is  taught  nothing  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Deity 
or  of  himself,  nor  is  any  inquiry  made  in  regard  to  his  notions 
of  either.  That  he  believes  in  some  sort  of  God  who  will 
punish  perjury,  is  enough:  and  even  if  his  God  be  but  a 
monstrous  image  of  himself,  a  mere  hideous  or  grotesque  idol 
of  the  imagination,  Blue  Masonry  asks  no  more  and  teaches 
him  nothing. 

If,  when  the  lesser  mysteries  were  communicated  to  all  men 
indiscriminately,  any  number  of  men  who  knew  them  only, 
had  continually  and  confidently  magnified  these  mysteries, 
proclaimed  that  they  taught  and  revealed  wonderful  things,  a 
complete  system  of  morals  and  all  known  truth ;  and  insisted 
that  tlvere  were  no  other  and  higher  mysteries ;  if  by  these 
bold  and  impudent  assertions  they  had  come  to  be  looked 
upon  as  Hierophants  by  the  mass  of  Initiates,  and  inventing 
silly  interpretations  of  the  Symbols  over  which  they  stumbled, 
had  led  their  flocks  far  away  from  the  truth  and  made  them 
in  love  with  the  babblings  of  folly,  the  true  Adepts  would  but 
have  smiled  to  see  the  multitude  misled,  and  have  permitted 
their  blind  guides  to  strut  to  the  end  in  their  tinselled  glories. 
For  all  this  would  no  more  have  added  value  to  the  lesser 
mysteries,  or  have  diminished  the  value  of  the  greater  ones, 
than  the  imprisonment  of  Galileo  caused  the  sun  to  revolve 
round  the  stationary  earth.  Every  man  of  high  intelligence, 
Initiate  of  the  Lesser  Mysteries,  but  ignorant  of  the  Greater, 
would  still  have  known  that  the  former  were  but  preparatory, 
and  that  there  must  be  some  place  in  which  their  symbols 
were  explained  and  their  real  purposes  made  known. 

How  can  the  intelligent  Mason  fail  to  see  that  the  Blue 
Degrees  are  but  preparatory,  intended  to  enlist,  and  band  and 
bind  together  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Masonic  army,  for  pur- 
poses undisclosed  to  them  ?  that  they  are  the  lesser  mysteries, 


.ENIGMA  OF  THE  SPHYNX.  41 

in  which  the  Symbols  are  used  to  conceal  the  truth  ?  They 
do  see  and  feel  and  know  this  ;  and  hence  the  resort  to  higher 
degrees  which,  known  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  teach  noth- 
ing at  all,  and  have  no  object  or  purpose. 

The  books  of  Bro.  Oliver  and  others  like  him.  are  wholly 
made  up  of  that  which  Blue  Masonry  does  not  teach :  and  it 
is  a  singular  absurdity  that  a  Rite  should  be  valued  and 
lauded,  not  for  what  it  does  teach  and  disclose,  but  for  what 
the  Initiate  can  only  learn  from  books  as  open  to  be  read  by 
the  Profane  as  by  himself.  And  it  is  a  greater  absurdity,  if 
that  is  possible,  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  immense  mass 
that  has  thus  been  written  has  little  or  no  real  connection  with 
Blue  Masonry,  and  might  with  quite  as  much  propriety  have 
been  written  upon  any  other  text. 

Of  course  nothing  is  to  be  done  with  those  who  accept 
literally  the  legend  of  Hi  ram  and  of  the  building  and  re- 
building the  Temple.  In  the  Mysteries,  those  who  misunder- 
stood the  Symbols  and  allegories  were  left  to  remain  in  the 
complacency  of  their  ignorance. 

The  existence  of  the  Scottish  Freemasonry,  before  171 7, 
was  not  publicly  known ;  for  its  purposes  were,  by  the  laws 
of  England  and  Scotland,  treasonable.  It  was  carried  to 
France  by  the  adherents  of  the  Pretender,  and  there  used  for 
the  same  purpose,  to  unite  the  adherents  of  the  House  of 
Stuart,  and  enable  them  to  act  in  concert  with  those  who, 
during  the  reign  of  Anne  and  George  I.,  were  plotting  to 
restore  the  Stuart  dynasty.  There,  also,  it  was  connected 
with  the  higher  degrees,  already  existing,  or  from  time  to 
time  invented,  in  France.  That  the  English  Freemasonry, 
established  at  the  moment  of  the  death  of  Anne,  was  the 
creation  of  the  adherents  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  is  suf- 
ficiently evident  from  the  pledge  of  its  Masters,  that  they 
would  obey  the  will  of  the  Supreme  Legislature,  that  is,  of 


42"  ENIGMA-  OF  THE  SPHYNX. 

*iie  English  Parliament  which  had  changed  the  succession  tc 
the  crown ;  for  this  promise  was  never  exacted  by  the  Scottish 
Freemasonry.  And  it  also  offers  the  only  rational  expla- 
nation of  the  rapid  increase  of  the  new  association  and  of 
the  existence  of  fifty  or  more  Lodges  in  London  in  a  few  years. 

The  Symbols  of  Antiquity  and  a  Ceremonial  resembling 
that  of  the  Mysteries,  were  perhaps  used,  at  first,  to  conceal 
the  true  purposes  of  the  Organization ;  and  the  certain  de- 
struction that  would  be  caused  by  betrayal,  while  the  aim  of 
the  Order  was  to  overthrow  the  Government,  accounts  for  the 
penalties  of  the  obligations. 

"When  there  was  no  longer  hope  of  the  restoration  of  the 
Stuarts,  the  higher  Degrees,  which  had  become  a  part  of  the 
system  of  Scottish  Freemasonry,  were  carried  to  England  by 
the  adherents  of  Laurence  Dermott,  of  whose  politics  we 
know  nothing ;  and  with  the  annihilation  of  that  hope  the 
purposes  of  that  Freemasonry  changed.  Becoming  connected 
with  some,  and  giving  birth  to  others,  of  the  higher  Degrees, 
the  system  became  philosophical  and  of  course  anti-papal, 
because  Eome  was  the  enemy  of  both  Science  and  Philosophy. 
The  English  Masonry  stood  still.  Suspicious  of  the  higher 
Degrees,  it  refused  to  recognize  them  as  Masonic,  or  to  form 
any  connection  with  them,  or  with  the  Royal  Arch  of  Dermott, 
framed  from  the  Eoyal  Arch  of  Enoch.  It  changed  its 
lectures  and  formulas,  again  and  again ;  but  it  never  had  any 
especial  object,  after  the  struggle  of  the  adherents  of  the 
Stuarts  had  ended.  The  Scottish  Freemasonry,  on  the  con- 
trary, engaged  in  its  long  controversy  with  Eoyal  and  Pon- 
tifical Despotism,  and  became  the  apostle  of  Free  Thought, 
Free  Speech,  and  Free  Conscience. 

We  do  not  demand  your  assent  to  these  conclusions.  We 
state  them  here,  to  lead  you  to  reflect  and  study,  that  you 
may  decide  for  yourself.  All  that  we  positively  assert  is,  that 


THE  .ENIGMA   OF  THE   SPHYNX.  43 

so  far  from  containing  in  themselves  all  Freemasonry,  the 
Bine  Degrees,  especially  in  England  and  the  United  States, 
only  conceal  the  Light  from  the  Initiates,  were  at  the  begin- 
ning only  a  means  of  organization,  and  are  now  only  prelim- 
inary and  rndimcntal.  The  Degree  of  Perfection  is  so  called 
because  it  completes  and  perfects  the  Third  Degree. 


THE    END. 


